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Objective: To determine mortality rates and to rank the causes and predictors of mortality using a wide range of sociodemographic and clinical variables., Materials and Methods: It is a prospective population-based cohort study of adults living in the community, 2013-15 N = 48,691, age ≥50; deceased = 1,944. Clinical and sociodemographic data were obtained from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe SHARE: Age, Gender, Marital Status, Years of Schooling, Income, Loneliness, Cognition, Self-Rated Health, Diseases, Activities of daily living ADL, and Frailty. Mortality rates were calculated. A Cox proportional hazards model were used to determine risk-adjusted mortality ratios., Results: The crude mortality rate was 18.39 (1000 person-years at risk), (99 % CI, 18.37-18.42). The factors most associated with an increased mortality risk were older age, lower self-rated health, lower cognition, male gender, ADL deficits, higher comorbidity, frailty and loneliness. The diseases with a higher mortality risk were: cancer (Hazard ratio, HR = 2.67), dementia (HR = 2.19), depressive symptoms (HR = 2.10), fractures (hip, femur) (HR = 1.57), stroke (HR = 1.55), chronic lung disease (HR = 1.52), diabetes (HR = 1.36) and heart attack (HR = 1.21)., Conclusions: The main mortality risk factors, associated independently in the eight diseases were: older age, poor self-rated health, ADL deficits, male gender, lower cognition, comorbidity and the presence of depressive symptoms, with a different influence in the European regions. The need to evaluate and treat the depressive symptoms that accompanies diseases with higher risk of mortality is stressed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Many epidemiological and clinical studies in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe and countries in transition, are of poor methodological quality because of lack of background knowledge in clinical epidemiology methods and study designs. The only way to improve the quality of epidemiological studies is to provide adequate undergraduate and/or postgraduate education for the health professionals and allied health professions. To facilitate this process, the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) Task Force on teaching of clinical epidemiology in Europe was set up in October 2000. Based on analyses of the current teaching and research activities in neuroepidemiology in Europe, this paper describes the Task Force recommendations aimed to improve these activities.